Fashion Brands

BANGALORE: Fashion retailers are slowing down frenetic expansion plans as soaring rentals begin to hurt. With high streets like South Ex and Linking Road beating Lexington Avenue or Union Square on rentals, the recently opened stores of leading apparel brands are grappling with a high cost base. The industry observers are warning of early store closures probably kicking in by early 2008. Sources said store rentals are now as high as 25-30% of the cost base for most...

MUMBAI: Major Brands, Indian franchisee for over a dozen marquee fashion brands including Mango, Aldo, Charles & Keith and Nine West, is struggling to keep pace with main rivals as its expansion has slowed amid speculations that its promoter is shifting focus to the more lucrative Middle East market. Major Brands — owned by Dubai-based billionaire Nilesh Ved who heads one of Middle East's most successful retail firms Apparel Group — posted 10%...

KOLKATA/NEW DELHI: Eighteen-year-old Kanika Kapur's year-end party picks include a Mango bag and shoes from Charles & Keith. Now she is planning to hit the malls, friends in tow, for a dress for the big night. Kanika's parents are no slouches on the shopping front either. While her mother, Vandana, has chosen to go with a J J Valaya outfit for the New Year's eve bash at home, her father, Delhi based construction equipment company owner Vijay Kapur, has...

In 2011 when the Benetton Group launched Unhate, its campaign for the foundation of the same name, for many it was a sign of Benetton's return to controversy. When giant billboard size posters of antagonistic religious leaders, presidents and prime ministers kissing appeared it seemed classic Benetton, taking up from where photographer Oliviero Toscani left off. Through the...

Last fiscal, India's overall consumer market growth slipped to its lowest level in a decade, but top global fashion brands Zara, Marks & Spencer, Benetton, Levi's and Tommy Hilfiger all posted anywhere between 14% and 42% year-on-year jump in their revenues, reports ET. And their base is not too low either; except Tommy, all others are Rs 500-crore-plus brands in India. On the down side, not all of them are making money, partly because they kept their rates affordable...

NEW DELHI: Hidesign, the homegrown leather brand known for high-end handmade handbags, plans to roll out footwear products starting February next year, as it aims to position itself as a lifestyle fashion brand. The company is set to launch its men's collection in February, followed by footwear for women a month later. Since September, it has been retailing leather jackets as well. Initially, it will showcase footwear products in...

Mumbai: Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Brands will bring British shirt brand Thomas Pink, owned by French major Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), to India as it looks to rapidly increase its presence in the fast-growing domestic premium-to-luxury fashion retail market. Reliance Brands, a wholly-owned arm of Reliance Industries , and Thomas Pink Ltd have signed an exclusive long-term franchise agreement to set up stores which sell shirts and...

NEW DELHI: A clutch of Italian fashion brands is gearing up to enter India, in the latest thrust by high-end merchandise makers wanting to tap new money in a country where luxury retail is showing signs of a pick-up. According to Luxury Connect, a Delhi-based marketing firm that works exclusively with luxury brands, fashion houses Moschino and Alberta Ferretti , Pollini, Gattinoni, Byblos and Scorpion Bay have...

NEW DELHI: DLF Brands, a DLF subsidiary that retails fashion brands in the country, has ended its agreement to sell Italian company Alcott's collection, according to its managing director. "We are shutting down Alcott as it is not performing too well in India," DLF Brands managing director Timmy Sarna said, adding that the company has ended the franchise partnership started with Alcott in 2008. It is, however, unclear whether Alcott will now tie up...

MUMBAI: Real estate giant DLF Ltd is ramping up presence in the fashion retail industry after striking a licensing deal with Spanish brand Mango. This comes at a time when DLF Brands, which is a subsidiary of DLF Ltd, has unveiled two new retail formats, including a multi-brand store chain, of its own. Mango , with over 1,700 doors worldwide, decided to sign up DLF as partner to fasttrack expansion after nearly a decade of operations in India. The Spanish...

NEW DELHI: DLF Brands will open 10 multi-brand retail stores this year, starting with its first store in Delhi that was launched on Thursday. Called AVE.NEU , the new multi-brand stores will sell products that include apparel, accessories from international brands like Claire's, DKNY, Alcott, Boggi, Sunglass Hut, ELC and Mothercare. All these brands are managed in India by DLF. "We will open 10 stores in 2012 and...

Reliance Brands, a unit of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries , plans to bring in more international fashion brands into the country through alliances and will focus on all things fashion except jewellery, Darshan Mehta , its president and CEO, says. The company, which currently has partnerships with 14 premium brands including Steve Madden, Paul and Shark and the recent BCBG Max Azaria, will leverage its strength and expertise in IT, human resources...

MUMBAI: Spain may have been dumped out of the FIFA World Cup in the first round four years after taking the crown, but Spanish fast fashion brand Zara, which opened its shop in India in 2010, continues its impressive run, having crossed Rs 500-crore sales mark. Inditex Trent, the joint venture between Zara brand owner Inditex and Tata Group's retail arm Trent, clocked 43 per cent annual growth in its sales for the year ended March...

NEW DELHI: Online marketplace giant eBay is sharpening focus on the fashion and lifestyle segment in India saying that buyers are looking beyond electronics and gadgets to shop on e-commerce sites. eBay India, which started operations nine years ago, also said that with growing awareness among people from tier II and III cities about online shopping, the trend to buy clothes and accessories online will further gain momentum. "We have a razor sharp focus on fashion and...

Arvind Brands, a fashion retailer, has roped in US Polo Assn. as one of the principal sponsors for Kolkata Knight Riders , a cricket team of the Indian Premier League Team (IPL), and Flying Machine and Ed Hardy as sponsors for Kings' XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore to promote its label. Already retailers such as Amazon and Flipkart are using IPL as a platform to introduce their brands. "This is the crucial time when the company is...

KOLKATA: ITC is foraying into the e-commerce business with its Wills Lifestyle retailing business and plans to set up standalone exclusive outlets for its sub-brands such as casual wear Wills Sports, work wear Wills Classic, and exclusive men and women wear stores. While ITC says the strategy is to expand penetration at a time when consumers are segmenting their wardrobe with apparel to suit each...

BANGALORE: International fashion brands Versace, Corneliani and Guess are all set to break away from their Indian partners, joining a growing list of international fashion brands struggling to settle down in India. Italian luxe brands Versace and Corneliani are expected to part ways with little-know Delhi-based firm Blues Clothing Company , three industry executives with knowledge of the development told ET. ...

BANGALORE: International fashion brands Versace, Corneliani and Guess are all set to break away from their Indian partners, joining a growing list of international fashion brands struggling to settle down in India. Italian luxe brands Versace and Corneliani are expected to part ways with little-know Delhi-based firm Blues Clothing Company , three industry executives with knowledge of the development told ET. ...

BANGALORE: Online fashion brand Yepme aims to sell global fashion apparel in international markets , the first home-grown online retailer to do so. To begin with, the company will target the NRI market with a new portal yepmeworld.com that will also act as a test-marketing site to gauge international demand for Indian-made fashion. "Why can't India produce the next big global fashion brand, why can't we produce an H&M," said Vivek Gaur, co-founder of Yepme who said he has been inspired...

BANGALORE: Online fashion brand Yepme aims to sell global fashion apparel in international markets , the first homegrown online retailer to do so. To begin with, the company will target the NRI market with a new portal yepmeworld.com, which will also act as a test marketing site to gauge international demand for India-made fashion. "Why can't India produce the next big global fashion brand, why can't we produce an...